Category Archives: National Bibliography News

The use of “National bibliographies in the digital age : guidance and new directions” in working with selection principles etc. in the Danish National Bibliography

by Hanne Hørl Hansen, Bibliographic Consultant, DBC as

The last couple of years, discussions have been going on in Denmark whether to include internet resources in the traditional national bibliography. Can a national bibliography be selective instead of exhaustive? How do you find and select the right resources to include since having an overview of all relevant candidates on the internet is impossible? How do you handle the great amount of relevant resources? Which is the right level of cataloguing? How do you maintain the records created when the resource described moves on or disappears from the web?

I was commissioned by The Danish Agency for Libraries and Media under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to prepare a report dealing with these issues. The report includes specific selection criteria, recommendations for levels of cataloguing etc. for internet resources to be included in the Danish National Bibliography. The report has just been approved by the Danish Bibliographic Council under the Danish Agency for Libraries and Media.

For inspiration in the initial discussions as well as in the actual work with the report I consulted the guidelines National bibliographies in the digital age. I find the guidelines useful in the following ways:

  • The guidelines introduce relevant areas to be analyzed in relation to internet resources in the national bibliography.
  • I find it very important that the guidelines reconsider the role of the national bibliography. This is of particular relevance when it comes to internet resources because the cultural heritage angle can be covered by legal deposit harvesting. The big question to be considered is whether the main function of the national bibliography is to serve as an exhaustive historical documentation of the output of the country or could be looked upon as a contemporary means to help libraries and end users access relevant resources. The guidelines state that the mission of the national bibliography is to support contemporary functions and that pragmatic (not necessarily exhaustive) formal selection criteria should be defined. I have built upon this confirmation of the national bibliography having a contemporary function providing access as an argument for recommending inclusion of selective internet resources in the national bibliography at all.

The guidelines as a whole have been an inspiration during the process, but I would like to point out the chapters of selection principles and cataloguing as being more than an inspiration to the  recommendations of my report.

Working with my report also reveals some shortcomings in the guidelines:

  •  As a whole the guidelines are very focused on material including text.
  •  The guidelines state that “the one size fits all approach is no longer sustainable” when it comes to cataloguing. It is also stated that processes must be simplified and automated when possible and that collaboration across sectors could reduce duplication. Do such initiatives and the recommended levels of associated metadata correspond with demands for core elements etc. in the cataloguing standards and codes? Do we need to modify and be more pragmatic in the cataloguing codes and standards when it comes to internet resources in order to handle the amount of material?
  •  The guidelines include a lot of historical background. A summary specifying areas to be considered and specific recommendations when starting working with including materials on the web into the national bibliography would be useful.

The Spanish Bibliography Online

Since January of 2010 the National Library of Spain (Biblioteca Nacional de España) has renewed the web service of the Spanish Bibliography online:  http://www.bne.es/es/Servicios/BibliografiaEspanola/BibliografiaEspanolaEnLinea/

The implementation of the new Integrated Library Management System has motivated some changes in the search and display interface for bibliographic records and it has delayed the start-up.  Monographs are now available and updated.

This electronic resource provides immediate and universal access to the bibliographic records that are part of the Spanish publishing output http://www.bne.es/es/Servicios/BibliografiaEspanola/  incorporated into the National Library through Legal Deposit.

The Spanish Bibliography online allows a more rapid, punctual and efficient distribution of the information available and makes easier data exchange thanks to the universal access offered by Internet today.

The Spanish Bibliography makes the search and browse process easier by offering multiple access points and a user-friendly interface with three diverse search options:

  • Alphabetical index (by author, title, subject, series, etc.)
  • Search by subject, records are arranged in large CDU groups of CDU in Monographs
  • Search by keyword, combining Booleans and other operators and truncation with specific fields and geographic areas
  • Static web resources –PDF documents – is also included

Additionally, it allows the download and export of records that will be extremely valuable for other national bibliographic agencies, libraries and institutions.

Free of charge access to the bibliographic records

  • Link to the National Library catalogue and download records in ISBD, labelled and MARC 21 (ISO 2709) formats

This new electronic bibliographic service replaces the printed versions that are no longer published. With the new service the National Library fulfils its function to disseminate information on the Spanish bibliographic output using the latest technologies available and we expect this tool will be useful to both professionals and general library users.

Francisca Movilla

Spanish Bibliography Section

The British National Bibliography is 60!

The British National Bibliography (BNB) is 60 years old in January 2010.

The BNB is the national bibliography of the United Kingdom. It lists and describes the books and serials newly published or distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland that are received by the British Library under legal deposit as provided for in various Acts of Parliament. It also includes information on forthcoming titles supplied under the British Library’s Cataloguing-in-Publication Programme.

The BNB was established in 1949 in response to the recommendations of Lionel McColvin who had undertaken a survey of the UK’s public library service in 1942 which resulted in the McColvin Report. McColvin concluded that it was inefficient for libraries to produce their own catalogues and that where catalogues did exist they only provided brief descriptions of library holdings rather than all available books of potential interest to users. McColvin identified a requirement for a detailed weekly list of bibliographic descriptions for new books which could be used by libraries to develop their catalogues by cutting and pasting the printed entries on to their catalogue cards.

The Council of the British National Bibliography was established in March 1949 and the new national bibliography commenced full operations in 1950. It consisted of weekly lists of all books and first issues of new serial titles published in Great Britain catalogued in accordance with the Anglo-American Code and classified according to the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Author/title indexes were provided every four weeks and the lists were cumulated into an annual volume. A pilot issue number 0 was produced in December 1949 and issue Number 1 was published on 4 January 1950. It contained just 25 entries.

The British Library took on the responsibility for the production of the BNB following its foundation in 1973 and still produces a weekly printed version of the BNB together with interim cumulations and annual volumes. However, the average weekly issue now contains around 3,500 entries in line with the huge increase in publication that has occurred over the last 60 years. This period has also seen numerous other developments for the BNB resulting in a database of over 3 million bibliographic records.

Coverage of the BNB has always been selective; the emphasis being on titles available via normal book buying channels.

A weekly BNB data service began in January 1969 using the (then) innovative combination of the new UKMARC bibliographic data and ISO2709 MARC record exchange formats with magnetic computer tape. BNB MARC records were first made available online in 1977 with the introduction of BLAISE, the British Library Automated Information Service. Distribution of BNB records via FTP began in 1998 and eventually replaced the tape service and the Library moved to the MARC21 format in 2004.

Following a pilot CD-ROM produced in co-operation with the Biblothèque Nationale in 1988, BNB on CD-ROM was launched in 1989. It originally consisted of a two-disc backfile covering the period 1950 to 1985 and a single disc current subscription service covering records created from 1986 updated quarterly. A new MS Windows version of the BNB on CD-ROM was produced in 1996 by which time current file discs were updated monthly and the backfile had been compressed on to a single disc. Production of BNB on CD-ROM ceased in December 2008 when the database became available for searching on the British Library’s Integrated Catalogue as a subset search.

The British Library coordinates the UK Cataloguing in Publication (CIP) Programme and has included advance notification publication records in the BNB since the 1980s. Information on new titles appears up to 16 weeks ahead of the announced publication date. Advance information on over 60,000 titles each year is provided in this way via the BNB.

In addition to Dewey Decimal Classification several other forms of subject access to the BNB have been used over the years, ranging from international standards such as Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to in-house systems such as PRECIS and COMPASS.

BNB development continues and in October 2009 it was added to the British Library’s new Primo based catalogue again as a catalogue sub-set search. A pilot is also under way for a free Z39.50 based BNB MARC record download service for non-commercial use.  However, the final innovation launched in January 2010 is another pilot of a new, weekly, PDF-based BNB e-journal version, initially for existing subscribers to the printed product. This new service will bring the story of the BNB full circle by enabling the British Library to deliver a ‘printed’ BNB to customers with improved currency and greater functionality while also saving paper. Lionel McColvin would surely have approved!